1. It’s been two years since the French Broad River rose to 27 feet during Hurricane Helen and devastated the town of Marshall, NC, including the historic Old Marshall Jail that my son Josh Copus took years to painstakingly repurpose into a Hotel Bar and Restaurant. Josh, a ceramics artist, hosted a Community Brick Project […]
-The following first appeared at Floyd Times on February 22, 2026 The Floyd Center for the Arts’ 5th Plein Air Biennial hosted 30 curated artists from around the country to create paintings inspired by Floyd’s natural beauty and culture. The September 14 -19 event included free-to-the public artist demonstrations, meet-the-artists wet paint sales, a Quick […]
Dear God, Can I call you Divine Consciousness? Can I call you Goddess or Siri if I don’t trust men? Is your full name God Help Us? Are you a thought more than a thing? Can I call you goodness or wholeness, white light or black hole? Are you an operating system? Are you catfishing […]
1. I was covering three Floyd Plein Air festival events over the weekend but called it the Plein Faire by mistake. Maybe the Plein Air Faire would be a good name for it. Story at Floyd Times. 2. Reality as we have collectively named it / can be viewed like a dream / prisms seen […]
-The following was first published at Floyd Times on September 15, 2026. Artemis, a Floyd-based poetry and visual art journal serving the Blue Ridge Mountain region and beyond, recently celebrated its 50th anniversary at Roanoke’s Taubman Museum with its 2026 book launch. The September 4th sold-out event featured 2026 U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze and […]
1. Because of a camping weekend followed by Yoga Jam weekend and a beach vacation after that, I was away from news gathering for a couple of weeks, but having a break from it didn’t make me feel better. I felt unaware and unprepared. I like to know. All of it. No matter how bad. […]
-The following first appeared in Floyd Times on September 9, 2026. The Floyd Center for the Arts hosted Ashley Webb, executive director and curator of collections and exhibitions for the Historical Society of Western Virginia, to present a lecture titled Woven Legacies: Stories, Traditions, and the Material Culture of Appalachian Overshot Coverlets. The free public […]
-The following was first published at Floyd Times on September 9, 2026. The theme of the 15th annual Yoga Jam festival held on Burnette Farm September 3 – 5 was SUPERBLOOM, the extraordinary burst of life that emerges after seasons of challenge, uncertainty, and waiting. Directors of the festival’s volunteer-driven nonprofit Karma Culture, Katie Turman […]
1. Floyd Yoga Jam wants you to know that the annual Labor Day weekend festival is an immersive wellness experience designed to inspire connection, healing, creativity, and presence through yoga, music, and community. 2. This is how I feel after a weekend of Yoga Jam. Aka: My kind of yoga. 3. I actually skipped Friday, […]
1. Over the weekend Joe and I, our grandson Liam and his friend Isiah camped at Breaks Interstate Park, 4500 acres of land that borders southwestern Virginia and southeastern Kentucky in the Appalachian Mountains. 2. Breaks Canyon is called The Grand Canyon of the South. 3. Kudzu, which is very prevalent in parts of the […]
